DORVAL Winemaking
At Dorval, we let the vineyards craft the wine.
-Andrew Kerr - Winemaker / Owner
"From granite to wine, our high-altitude vineyards and diverse soil elevate every bottle with exceptional character and depth."
AUTHENTIC WINEMAKING
At Dorval Estate Winery, we take pride in our meticulous winemaking process, ensuring that every bottle reflects the essence of our grapes. In effort to extract every ounce of quality we employ several wine making techniques from old world Appassimento to modern fermentation. Our methods begins at harvest with grapes handpicked at the peak of maturity. In late August, we cut out non desired clusters and retain the desired fruit.
During vinification, we carefully de-stem the grapes without crushing them, which preserves their integrity and optimizing color extraction.
For aging, we utilize French and American oak barrels. The result is a beautifully crafted wine that captures the true spirit of our vineyard, ready to be enjoyed and celebrated.
THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
Andrew’s Vision: Where Innovation Meets Terroir
Andrew’s winemaking philosophy is rooted in a commitment to crafting world-class rustic California wines.—while embracing bold, innovative techniques that challenge convention. At the core of this vision lie three distinct vineyard sites, each with terrain as unique as the wines they inspire.
Our hillside vineyards rest on a tapestry of soils: decomposed granite, sandy loam, volcanic ash, and calcareous clay. This rugged diversity offers the vines both struggle and strength—an ideal foundation for complexity, character, and site expression.
For Andrew, the belief is simple yet unwavering: great wine is not made in the cellar—it’s made in the vineyard. His obsessive attention to detail guides every decision, from soil-varietal matching to the precise planting structures that promote natural vine balance and sustainability.
At Dorval Estate Winery, this philosophy lives in every row, every vine, and every bottle. It’s a pursuit of excellence—rooted in tradition, driven by innovation, and shaped by the land itself.
Our wines speak this same dialect: Cabernet Sauvignon with granite-borne tension, Petit Verdot that thrives under heat, Merlot grown in clay-rich soils with depth and velvet, and Cabernet Franc shaped by foothill winds and minerality.
A Bold Lineage of Terroir-Driven Winemaking
At Dorval Estate Winery and Terra Dorada Vineyards, our story is grounded in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada foothills — a place of granite, heat, and bold character. But our spirit aligns with a rare group of European regions that have dared to do the same: craft elegant Bordeaux-style wines in harsh, sun-drenched, high-elevation terrain.
We draw inspiration from...
Priorat, Spain
Where Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot grow in fractured slate and granite — forging wines of deep concentration and striking minerality.
Tuscany’s Bolgheri Coast
Where the Super Tuscan movement rewrote tradition by planting Bordeaux varietals in warm, coastal hills with rocky soils — proving that greatness lies beyond appellation lines.
Alentejo, Portugal
Where granite-based vineyards endure searing summers, yet yield bold reds with freshness and structure — a mirror of our own Madera heat and decomposed granite soils.
An Estate That Listens to the Land
With elevations from 650 to 1,400 feet, and four distinct soil types — volcanic clay, red clay, loam, and decomposed granite — our estate echoes these regions in both diversity and extremity. Like our European counterparts, we farm Bordeaux, and select Mediterranean varietals where others wouldn’t dare, using regenerative, agroforestry-based practices to capture purity, structure, and a distinct voice from each parcel.
Wines That Speak a New Dialect of Bordeaux
We are not trying to recreate Bordeaux. We are continuing its tradition of exploration — the same tradition that found new voices in Priorat, Bolgheri, and Alentejo.